IRKUTSK, Russia (UCAN) -- Leaders from the Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox and Protestant communities will join Catholics of eastern Siberia at the consecration of their cathedral here.

Divine Word Bishop Jerzy Mazur, apostolic administrator of Eastern Siberia, will consecrate Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral Sept. 8. His administration is headquartered in Irkutsk, some 4,200 kilometers southeast of Moscow.

The consecration will be the first event in a three-day ecumenical and interreligious celebration that will highlight reconciliation for the Jubilee of the Year 2000. A Mariological congress is scheduled Sept. 9-10.

Among those expected to attend the event are papal delegate Cardinal Jan Schotte, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek of Minsk-Mohilev, head of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Byelorussia, and Archbishop Giorgio Zur, apostolic nuncio to the Russian Federation.

Bishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Bishop Clemens Pickel and Jesuit Bishop Joseph Werth, respectively administrators of Northern European Russia, Southern European Russia and Western Siberia, will also attend the ceremony. Moscow-based Bishop Kondrusiewicz heads the Russian Catholic Bishops' Conference.

Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox and Protestant representatives will also be among the expected 1,500 people attending the consecration, and will have an active role in dedicating a special outdoor chapel Sept. 10.

The chapel dedicated to peace and reconciliation among the various religions will be blessed in the name of all victims of religious persecution, notably under Communist rule in Russia 1917-1991.

The representatives will each read from sacred Scriptures of their religion and offer prayers for peace, unity and reconciliation.

Fourteen urns filled with earth from 14 Soviet-era gulags in Siberia will be ritually entombed in the chapel. They will represent the 14 stations of the cross through the suffering of the peoples of Siberia.

Monsignor Peter Fetermak, in charge of the cathedral construction, and workers from China, Mongolia, Siberia and Europe worked hard for a year, through snow and cold, to get the cathedral ready for the Jubilee year, according to Church sources.

After the consecration Mass, at which Cardinal Schotte will preside, Bishop Kondrusiewicz will deliver an "Act of Entrustment of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary" followed by speeches from government and Church leaders.

Cardinal Schotte will also open the "First Mariological Congress of Russia" Sept. 9. The first day of the congress is dedicated to ecumenism on the theme "Theotokos (God-bearer) in the Different Christian Traditions."

Archbishop Zur will preside at the Mass followed by a Marian procession, led by Bishop Pickel. Small chapels representing the rosary around the outside of the cathedral will be blessed as Bishop Mazur leads recitation of the rosary and personal testimonies of faith.

Cardinal Swiatek will preside at Mass on the closing day, Sept. 10, dedicated to interreligious peace and reconciliation. The new pastoral center and chancellery of the Eastern Siberia administration will also be blessed.

Following the dedication of the peace and reconciliation chapel, the religious leaders will meet for a dialogue at the cathedral square.

The afternoon will feature a visit to the Unification House of John Paul II in Listvianka on Lake Baikal.

The three-day celebration will end with an organ concert at the original cathedral in Irkutsk, which was turned into a theater under Soviet rule. Later, public reluctance to return it led to a sharing arrangement giving Catholics full use only on religious feasts, if no performance was scheduled.

Father Jozef Weclawik, chancellor of the Eastern Siberia administration, told UCA News, "There are now 700 Catholics in Irkutsk, but before the persecution there were 4,500 Catholics."

He said priests and Religious serving the administration include seven Polish Sisters of Immaculate Mary, three Servants of the Holy Spirit nuns from Poland and Slovenia, and three Spanish Servants of Mercy of St. Anne sisters.

He said it also has two Polish priests and an American priest and a brother. Three Maryknoll priests are expected to begin language study in October.

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